Hearts Connected LLC

Last week, we hosted an incredible webinar with hundreds of child life professionals engaging in one of the most honest and thought-provoking conversations we’ve had in a long time: navigating scope of practice in real-world clinical settings!

Together, we explored complex scenarios involving behavioral health, phobias vs fears, family requests difficult to say no to, interdisciplinary overlap, medication taking, and more. What became clear very quickly was that many child life specialists are not struggling because they “don’t know their scope” — they are navigating increasingly complex patient needs, system gaps, blurred interdisciplinary expectations, and real human moments that don’t always fit neatly into a textbook scope of practice definition.

Throughout the webinar, participants worked through real submitted scenarios, engaged in live polling, and discussed the nuance behind questions like:
👉 “Just because I can help… does that mean I should?”
👉 “At what point does support become treatment?”
👉 “Am I filling a system gap, or stepping outside my role?”

We created this Practical Framework for Assessing Scope — a tool designed to help clinicians think through complex situations in real time by assessing:
✨ Need
✨ Pattern
✨ Appropriateness
✨ Context
✨ Response
✨ Clinical support/supervision

Our hope is that this framework helps child life specialists feel more confident navigating gray areas while protecting both patients and the integrity of the role. These conversations are not meant to spark doubt, but rather professional confidence in our self-awareness and ability to question when something does not feel "right."

Trying new things can feel scary for children, when it's something exciting.

One of the most helpful things we can do isn’t convincing them they’ll have fun, it’s helping them feel prepared! The biggest mistake many parents make is focusing only on the positive to try and "make" their child have a positive experience, but we can't always force a specific experience or perception. Children need to be prepared for the reality of what will actually happen, how they may feel, what they can do, and who they can turn to.

Kids feel safer when they know:
✨ what the day will look like
✨ what feelings might come up
✨ who they can talk to
✨ what stays the same (“I always come back.”)

Preparing them builds confidence more than the pressure to have fun ever will! 🤍